Class Time Terror
by WaffelWollust
Summary: Absolutely NO yaoi. Ryou Bakura has a tough day at school and Marik isn't helping any. Everyone reaches a point where they just snap. Between the spirit living in his head and his teacher, it was only a matter of time before Ryou reached his. AU because Marik is there. Everything else is mostly canon with a few obvious differences. Based on real life events.


Panic. Fear. I fidgeted in my seat, craning my neck to look out the window. Where was everybody? They were late. Was I in the right place? My nervousness abated a bit as I saw Yugi and Marik walk through the door. I waved to them, motioning for them to come over. They smiled and walked in, greeting me. I watched their faces fall as they realized we were the only ones in there.

"Where is everybody?" Yugi asked nervously, looking around. "Class starts in a minute." I shook my head in confusion.

"I don't know," I said quietly, trying to keep the terror out of my voice. I hated feeling like I was in the wrong place, especially at school. I knew Yugi felt the same way, just from the look on his face.

"Man, not even the teacher's here," Marik commented, glancing around the empty room. He didn't look nervous at all, earning him the envy of me and Yugi. Marik walked over to one of the computers and booted it up, motioning for us to do the same. "Relax. They'll show up." Yugi and I exchanged an unnerved glance before sitting down. I pushed the power button, and, hearing the computer hum to life, I looked out the window again, each time hoping to see our teacher, or at least some of the other students. There were a couple of librarians talking nonchalantly to each other, and I saw some girls near the front looking at books. But neither of them were in our class. I settled back in my chair, anxiously hoping the rest of the class would get there soon.

The late bell rang, and I cringed hopelessly. The rest of the class still wasn't there. We were all alone. Something was definitely wrong.

"Marik, you're positive our class is in the library today?" Yugi's voice cut through the silence, making me jump. Yugi looked at me apologetically, then turned his attention back to Marik, who looked slightly irritated.

"Yes, I'm sure. I asked the librarian," here Marik pointed to one of the socializing women, "and she said that our class was scheduled to be in here this period. They'll be here." He leaned back in his chair, not seeming worried in the slightest. "Besides, why are you so worried this time? Our teacher has been late to class before. Hell, she was late just yesterday."

"Yesterday, she was the only one we were waiting on," I pointed out, trying not to hyperventilate. "Today our entire class is missing." Yugi nodded, agreeing with me while his eyes darting up to the clock every few seconds. Marik saw this and laughed at him.

"Would you calm down?" he said, as though nothing could possibly be wrong. "I mean, it's not like you've never skipped class before." I just stared at him in disbelief, shaking my head slowly. My brain couldn't even begin to process what he had just said or what he had just implied. Surely, he hadn't tricked us into skipping, had he? But then, I had asked the librarian as well, and she did say we were in the computer lab today. 'Marik is a lot of things, but he is not a liar. If he said your class should be here, then they should be here.' I growled at him, closing my eyes in the hopes of shutting out his voice. I guess Marik thought I was growling at him, because he squinted his eyes at me.

"Are you okay, Ryou?" he asked, sounding concerned. 'How sweet. He cares about you.' /Shut up. Please. Just shut up for once in your afterlife. I don't need to deal with you too./ 'Fine. Be that way, yadonushi.' I heard him leave my mind and breathed a sigh of relief. That was one problem out of the way. For now, anyway. He would probably bother me again soon enough; he never stayed out of my life for long. Always meddling.

I looked up at the clock and groaned. Class should have started seven minutes ago. Looking over at Marik, I grinned a little as I realized that he was starting to look as flustered as Yugi and I were. Marik sighed loudly, making us jump. He saw our reactions and grinned at us mischievously. We glared at him, and I wondered how he could still be so calm. I think it finally dawned on him that Yugi and I weren't having fun, sitting in the dark computer lab all by ourselves, because he rolled his eyes.

"Is it really bothering you guys that no one is here yet?" he asked us. Yugi nodded, obviously frustrated that he had the nerve to ask. "What about you, Ryou?" I gulped, trying to calm my heart rate, before realizing that swallowing wouldn't help, even if my throat wasn't dry.

"I think I'm having a panic attack of some sort," I told him meekly, hoping it would make him do something. His eyes widened a bit, and I think he noticed for the first time that I was breathing rather erratically. He paused for a second, then nodded at us.

"All right. I'll go talk to the librarians and find out what's going on." Marik got up and walked out to the main library, quickly getting the attention of the women. "With my luck, they probably forgot we were even in here," I grumbled, more than a little frustrated. 'It's not their fault you're so unnoticeable, yadonushi.' I groaned in frustration. /Can't you leave me alone?/ I could almost feel him grinning evilly at me. 'Of course not. You're my host. Your problems are my problems.' /I seriously doubt you've ever had this problem before./ 'No.' I swore I could see him sitting on the table in front of me, then attributed it to fear. 'But then, I've never been around someone who's such a complete pushover.' /Please. Just be quiet until we find out where our class is. Then you can talk all you want, okay?/ I could almost see the spirit smirking. 'Don't you usually want it the other way around? Why the sudden- hehe- Change of Heart?' I groaned out loud and hid my face in my hands. /Must you make such a horrendous pun?/ I asked him, trying to control the urge to rip the Millennium Ring out of my chest and throw it in the trash. It would hospitalize me, and quite possibly kill me, but it would almost be worth it to not have that voice taunting me anymore. I just had to keep reminding myself of that 'almost'.

I was on the verge of tears when Marik came back to the room. Yugi stood up in his chair a bit, obviously anxious to know what was going on. Marik pointed back at the librarians, who looked like they were actually doing something besides standing around talking.

"They're calling the classroom to see if our teacher's there," he said, running a hand through his hair. I noticed that it was starting to spike up at the edges and shuddered, hoping Marik's other self wouldn't show up. Yugi nodded and sat back down, waiting. I looked at the clock on the wall again. Class should have started ten minutes ago. We all sat and waited while the librarian made the phone call. She came into the lab a minute later with an apologetic look on her face. My face went white with panic, and I didn't even hear what she said after. "Damn," Marik said angrily, quickly grabbing his backpack. Yugi and I rushed to get our things and followed him out. One of the librarians wrote us a pass and we rushed out. Well, I wanted to rush out. We walked at a normal walking pace, when I wanted to run to class at full speed. I hated being late more than anything. I hated missing even a minute of class; I didn't even go to the bathroom when I was at school, for fear I would miss something important.

We walked outside to the path, and I vaguely heard Yugi and Marik chatting about something, but I couldn't focus. 'I don't get you, yadonushi.' I froze, although my body kept moving on autopilot. /What do you mean?/ I asked him, continuing along the path. I was curious now; he had never expressed interest in understanding me before. I was just his host, nothing more, nothing less. He always said that he didn't need to understand me, only that I needed to be healthy so that he could use my body when the need arose. 'You act as though you are terrified of being wrong, as though being late to class was the end of the world.' /So? What does that have to do with anything?/ I insisted. 'If you were really worried about being late, why didn't you make Marik talk to the book whores sooner? Or, better yet, why didn't YOU talk to them?' I blinked in confusion. Why HADN'T I talked to them? I was perfectly capable, and yet. . . /It didn't occur to me, I suppose./ I told him, wishing I could make Yugi and Marik walk faster, or walk ahead of them. But Marik had the note. I thought about it for a second, then sighed. /Even if I HAD thought of it, I wouldn't have been able to get their attention./ I jumped a bit as I heard him laugh loudly. 'You are weak, yadonushi. Too passive. You wouldn't need me around if you would just stand up for yourself.' I felt the heat rush to my cheeks as embarrassment flooded me. /I can stand up for myself!/ I told him angrily.

'Prove it then, yadonushi. Show me your strength.'

"Hey, Ryou!" Startled, I looked up at Yugi and Marik, who were watching me, concerned. "You okay?" I realized we were outside the classroom and smiled sheepishly at them.

"Y-yeah. Sorry." They nodded, understanding, and we walked into the classroom with Marik in the lead. Our teacher looked up as we entered.

"Can I help you gentlemen?" She asked us. I gaped at her. It was like she didn't even notice we were missing! What kind of teacher was she? /Don't answer that./ I told the Thief King before he could reply to my thoughts. 'I wasn't going to say anything,' he said, feigning a wounded air. /Sure you weren't./

Marik handed our teacher the note and we sat down in some empty seats, because apparently she couldn't be bothered to make the extra kids give our seats back. Our teacher continued her lecture about whatever she was talking about. I don't even know. All of a sudden, I didn't care anymore. I just wanted to leave before Marik lost his temper and his other personality took over. Because it would happen any second, right? I tuned out everything she said, because not listening helped me deal with the strange feeling I was experiencing that made my throat tighten up and made me want to scream. For a second, I thought that Thief King had taken over my body, and that I was just experiencing his emotions through our link. But then I realized that he had no reason to want to scream, and that they were my emotions. That scared me. But just a little.

I looked up as the bell rang, telling us class was over. I grabbed my bag and walked over to Marik and Yugi, who were watching me closely.

"What is it, guys?" I asked, not knowing why they were staring at me in such a strange way.

"Are you okay, Ryou?" Yugi asked me.

"You've been shaking all period," Marik added, making me wonder how I could have been shaking without realizing it. 'Anger makes you do a lot of things without realizing,' Thief King said knowingly. Once again, I could almost see him smirking at me. I growled inwardly at him, wishing I had a technique for making him shut up. On the outside, I smiled reassuringly at my friends.

"Yes, I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?" I lied through my teeth. They just looked at each other and shrugged. We started to walk out the door when our teacher stopped us.

"Tomorrow, try to be on time, won't you?" she asked in a tone that sounded more like "if you don't, then I will rip out your innards and feed them to my dog". I couldn't take it anymore. I snapped. Roaring like a madman, I threw my backpack at her and didn't waste any time before pointing at her as menacing as I could.

"PENALTY GAME!" I screamed at her without thinking. The room was deathly silent, and I could feel Marik and Yugi staring at me in disbelief. Our teacher looked up at me from her new position on the floor.

"Penalty WHAT?" she asked, a confused look plain on her face. The realization of what I had just done dawned on me, and I lowered my hand in horror, bringing it to cover my mouth in embarrassment.

"Oh, dear," I whimpered, my eyes wide. I had no idea how to react in this situation, and obviously no one else did either, because we all just stared blankly at each other. Suddenly, I was a few feet behind my body, and looking down, I realized Thief King had switched places with me.

"I'll take it from here, yadonushi," he said out loud, probably to further embarrass me. I could see an evil grin creep onto his- although it was technically my- face, and I started to fear for my teacher's life. I looked behind me and saw Yugi- or maybe it was the Pharaoh?- move towards him, but Marik stopped him with his arm. I watched as Thief King pointed at my teacher, and was briefly upset to realize that he did a better job of pointing menacingly at people, but then I realized that that was kind of stupid. He cackled for a minute before getting to the task at hand. "You've been a bad teacher. I think I'll have to punish you for making my host so upset." Our teacher blinked in surprise.

"Your. . . host?" she asked him. I could tell she was wondering if she had heard him right. If he hadn't meant something else. But that WAS what he meant. His grin darkened and he laughed malevolently at her.

"PENALTY GAME!" he roared at her, much like I had done a minute before. The difference being, this time, something actually happened. I saw her eyes go blank for a moment before roaring back to life. She brought her hand to her head.

"What just happened?" she mumbled to herself. Suddenly I was in control of my body again. I turned back towards Yugi and Marik who were staring in a mixture of fear and concern. I turned around and gulped, hoping he hadn't done too much damage. My teacher stood up and dusted herself off as though nothing had happened. I slowly knelt down and picked up my backpack from its position on the floor. Our teacher didn't even seem to notice, she just walked over to her desk and sat down. I looked at the others and they both shrugged at me, not knowing what to do. Taking one last look at our teacher, we all started to leave when another student walked in.

"Hiya, teach!" she said brightly, a smile on her face. That smile quickly disappeared, however, when our teacher started screaming her head off. We all backed into the corner, frightened. "What's wrong with her?" the girl asked us, scared. The three of us looked at each other, not sure what to say.

"Ghosts! GHOSTS!" our teacher screamed, quickly running out of the classroom as though Yami Marik was chasing her with a chainsaw. /What the bloody hell did you DO to her?/ I asked him, dreading the answer. 'She ignored her students,' he said simply. 'So, I made her forget about the rest. Don't worry, she'll be just fine. . . after a couple of days.' He snickered at her misfortune, and I groaned in disbelief. /It's Mai all over again. . ./ Not entirely certain what to do, we left, and I could feel Yugi and Marik glancing nervously at me every so often. They were probably scared of Thief King, and I couldn't blame them.

'They could be scared of you too, yadonushi. You did lose your temper a bit.' I sighed and rolled my eyes. /I know,/ I told him, then stopped, wondering about something. /Why did you step in then?/ I asked him. He was quiet for a moment, and I thought he wasn't going to answer. 'Because. You stood up for yourself. Sort of.' I sighed again. Only the Thief King could turn a compliment into an insult. 'It's a start, yadonushi. It's a start.'

I shook my head at him, surprised to find myself smiling. I reached up to feel the Ring under my shirt, and waved goodbye to my friends before rushing to my next class.


End file.
